Chapter 47: People of the Same Feather Flock Together
"I'm already 21. After finishing the farm work, I can't just idle around at home all the time, can I? If I keep this up, when will I ever be able to get a wife!
If I can train the hawk and catch pheasants or wildcats in the mountains, even if I only earn fifty cents a day, that's still fifteen yuan a month!"
Zhu Erhai pushed himself to exaggerate, but he didn't dare to inflate the earnings any higher. In his eyes, earning fifteen yuan a month was already an unimaginable sky-high price.
Silence!
Quiet!
Zhu Jianshe and his wife were both a bit brain-dead. Their son, who had always been lazy, good-for-nothing, and insatiable, seemed to have come up with an idea today that, strangely, had no logical flaws.
"Can the pheasants and rabbits caught by the hawk really be sold for money in the city?" Niu Jianshe asked again, still a bit uncertain.
"My younger brother Sanhai heard it himself from Wang Mingyu, the Secretary's youngest son, yesterday!" Zhu Erhai argued forcefully.
"Where's San'er? Go call your brother back!"
"Can't open the door, the hawk is still on top of the heated brick bed cabinet!" Zhu Erhai said, pointing at the hawk on the bed.
"Give me the pant leg!" Zhu Jianshe took the cotton pant leg from his son's hand, took off his shoes, got onto the heated brick bed, then suddenly pounced and grabbed the two ends of the rope tethering the hawk.
Seeing that the large hawk was re-controlled by his Dad, Zhu Erhai then went out to find his younger brother.
After a while, Zhu Sanhai also returned.
Little Sanzi told his father everything he had heard from Wang Jianguo's son.
At this, Niu Jianshe's mind also became active.
Could it be that he really misunderstood his second son this time? He immediately decided to go out later and inquire about what was going on.
If it was true, then training a large hawk to hunt in the mountains would also be a good option for the autumn and winter seasons.
Ordinary villagers didn't dare to venture deep into the mountains. Villagers who grew up at the foot of the mountains had sufficient reverence for the deep old forests since childhood.
Using hawks to hunt small game didn't require venturing deep into Changbai Mountain like hunting wild boars or Roe Deer. The mountain ridges right at their doorstep were enough to catch prey like pheasants and rabbits.
In the village gathering areas at the foot of the mountains, due to constant human activity, large fierce beasts rarely appeared. Except for occasional years when mountain produce wasn't abundant and large mountain animals would descend in autumn to wreak havoc on cornfields, the hills around their doorstep were almost free of danger.
Just like this, the matter of Zhu Erhai raising a large hawk was temporarily settled at home. However, his Mom's broom-fried pork slices couldn't be avoided. He got beaten, and that was that. There was no such thing as a birth mother apologizing to her son afterwards.
In the entire Zhu family, the happiest one was probably Zhu Sanhai.
His brother brought back a large hawk from outside. Looking at its size, it was much bigger than the hawks Yue Feng and the others took up the mountain.
According to what he heard when Dad, Mom, and his brother were chatting, a hawk this big could catch pheasants and rabbits in the mountains, which was much stronger than the smaller hawks that Second Young Master Yue and his group could only use to catch Sand Grouse.
Zhu Sanhai, who hadn't eaten lunch yet, felt a bit restless at home. If he wasn't afraid of getting beaten, he would want to go out right now and tell his friends that his family was also raising a large hawk.
The matter of the Zhu family raising a hawk had temporarily calmed down, but at Zhu Old head's place behind the village, another storm hadn't subsided yet.
By noon, the geese released by the family had returned home on time. However, after a count, the large mother goose that laid the most eggs was missing.
Lao Zhu Tou'er and his wife leisurely went to the place where the geese usually ate grass and bathed and searched around, but found no clues. So, Zhu Laotouer's wife, Ma Pozi, didn't even bother eating lunch. She walked onto the main street, put her hands on her hips, and started shouting.
"Which damned soul stole our goose!
Whoever ate my goose, I guarantee you'll get rotten sores on your mouth and hemorrhoids on your backside!!"
"You son of a bitch goose thief, I curse you to be infertile your whole life, and for your wife to give birth to eight sons for you!"
"You weed-like goose thief, I'll f*ck your blood mother!"
...
As the saying goes, people of the same feather flock together, and this was truly the case for the Zhu family.
The Zhu family was considered an old household in the village, but their reputation had been very poor since the generation of their great-grandfather. Lao Zhu Tou'er had no dealings with his neighbors; they were the type who wouldn't even greet each other if they met on the street.
Zhu Laotouer's wife, Ma Pozi, was even more of a champion street curser among the village old women. If anyone provoked her, she could curse non-stop at the street corner under the hot sun for a whole afternoon without repeating herself!
If it were someone else, and they lost a large goose, neighbors and such would definitely help organize a search everywhere. But the neighbors of Lao Zhu Tou'er's family didn't say a word, and no one was willing to get close.
Who would want to court trouble? Not to mention not seeing it, even the few villagers who saw Zhu Erhai carrying the goose out of the village likely thought it better to mind their own business and not cause themselves trouble.
With this cursing, Ma Pozi cursed from noon until past two in the afternoon. There was no reaction, and Ma Pozi felt she hadn't performed well, so she directly went to the Village Department Secretary Wang Jianguo's home on her tiptoes.
As the Village's Secretary, Wang Jianguo also had a headache dealing with Ma Pozi. She was so old, and her seniority was there; speaking too harshly wouldn't do, and if she came with a problem, ignoring it wouldn't do either.
So, Wang Jianguo used the Village Department's large loudspeaker to announce it repeatedly, and promised that if there was any news, he would tell her immediately. Only then was Ma Pozi coaxed back home.
In the following few days, the entire village was peaceful.
Yue Feng and the few members of the hawk hunting team went up the mountain together every day just as dawn broke, then each selected a hill and worked with their hawks. By 4:30 PM, they gathered at home on time, handed over all the day's harvest, which Yue Feng was responsible for compiling, and then pulled the sled to deliver the goods to the coal mine's Second Canteen.
After several days of high-intensity hunting sorties, the five Eurasian Sparrowhawks at home, even the one with the gentlest temperament that Xiao Wu was assigned, were now steady.
Apart from the Northern Goshawk in Yue Feng's hand, the other four people each averaged a stable daily harvest of over 25 small birds, able to consistently supply the Second Canteen with around a hundred mountain pheasants and wild game every day.
In these few days, Yue Feng wandered around the Red Pine Forest areas in his memory every day he went up the mountain. He had also accumulated over thirty Gray Dog skins in his hand.
Stable fresh wild game meant stable cash income. After this period of accumulation, the cash in Yue Feng's hands successfully broke the two hundred yuan mark, reaching an astonishing 241 yuan and fifty-three cents.
This was even before the skins at home were dried and sold; otherwise, there would be a few hundred yuan more.
After receiving the payment for another delivery, Yue Feng had saved enough money to buy a bicycle, and his mind became active.
It was time to go to the Ghost Market early one morning again. After so long, Hu Ge should have also managed to get a bicycle ticket.
Going up the mountain every morning, and then after Yue Feng returned home in the afternoon, he still had to pull the sled into the city. Not counting the path on the mountain, just the round trip into the city was forty to fifty li.
Days like this, traveling on foot, were not meant for people. Once he had saved enough money, the first thing was to solve the transportation problem.
Chapter two, there will be another chapter at eight in the evening.